Veteran British broadcast journalist, Hilary Alexander has died at the age of 77.
On Sunday, her birthday, the well-known television personality and fashion editor passed away.
She was one of the first Fleet Street fashion writers, beginning her career as a trainee reporter at the age of 16, and eventually rising to become the Daily Telegraph’s fashion editor in 1982, a position she held for 26 years.
Alexander was close friends with a number of well-known designers, including Gianni Versace, Zandra Rhodes, Lee McQueen, and Julien Macdonald, and is credited with coining the phrase “supermodel.”
They usually called her Hils, and they trusted her to keep the details of their planned projects a secret—as long as she could break the news first.
In 1997 and 2003, she received two awards for British Fashion Journalist of the Year, and in June 2011, The Daily Telegraph and the British Fashion Council held a gala to honor her work.